A POLICEMAN who went the extra mile when a van containing thousands of pounds worth of equipment was stolen is being praised for his determination and detective skills.

When a worker at EBL Group roofing and construction company at Sutton Weaver discovered his van had been stolen in the early hours of the morning, the company knew through bitter experience it had little hope of finding the vehicle, let alone getting the precious equipment back.

But it wasn't bargaining on the resourcefulness of one particular bobby, who was alerted by a member of the public to a pile of decorator's equipment which had been dumped on Runcorn Hill near the Traveller's Rest pub.

The constable, who has not been named by the Cheshire Constabulary, then searched through the dumped goods, hoping to find some correspondence which would identify the owners of the goods.

Discovering a van had been reported stolen he then contacted the company to tell it of his find.

Edward Basnett, managing director of EBL, said 'We've had a few vans stolen before, and we certainly weren't realistically expecting to see any of the stolen items again. But thanks to the resourcefulness of this constable, we got a call to tell us he'd found most of the stuff within hours of us reporting it to the police.'

By this time, other police officers had tracked down the stolen van which had been placed in a compound in Warrington -­ minus its expensive load.

But there was heartening news for Mr Basnett when police informed him they had found the rest of the missing property hidden in nearby bushes.

A delighted Mr Basnett said: 'It was unbelievable. The police officer didn't have to go that extra mile, but he did. And he rang me on my mobile to save me getting all the way back to the office and having to turn around again.

He showed fantastic perseverance just to get that number, let alone to carry on searching for the rest of the goods after I left.

'Too often we hear criticisms of the police, and there is an attitude amongst some that the police don't do anything. This just goes to show that there are some police officers who don't give up, and go to every length to do a fantastic job.

'I really want to find out who the constable was and thank him so much for his determination and careful detective work.'

The company was so impressed with the police's work that it has written to express its thanks.

'To get absolutely every last thing back was wonderful. All the officers involved are a credit to the police service.'

A spokesman for the Cheshire Constabulary said: 'We managed to recover both the van and the stolen tools thanks to tip-offs from vigilant local residents who reported seeing them. We would like to thank them for doing so and hope that others would also report to the police anything they think seems suspicious.'